


Caught in the Rain

by L0NE



Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Fire Emblem Series
Genre: F/M, Plot What Plot, They get caught in a rainstorm and then theyre out of it, berkut’s semi failed date, i just wanted to think of them doing other couple things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:15:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26457034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/L0NE/pseuds/L0NE
Summary: Berkut liked the rain. He liked it a lot less when he happened to be caught in it.With his fiancee, no less.
Relationships: Berkut/Rinea (Fire Emblem)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24





	Caught in the Rain

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in one night while on the road so it probably isn’t my BEST berkurinea fic but i wanted to post it anyways. Just something casual, a peek into their life. Thanks for reading

In any normal circumstance, Berkut liked stormy weather. The way the rain hit against the windows of the castle, the sounds of the thunder rumbling above, the chill that would settle over the courtyard after everything cleared up… It was atmospheric— it made the world around him less dull.

He liked it a lot less when he happened to be caught in it. With his fiancee, no less.

Part of it is his own fault, he will admit. He had pushed for the two of them to travel some distance away for a weekend’s reprieve, and Rinea had accepted his offer, but had pointed out the dark clouds that hung over the horizon that afternoon as they put their bags in their carriage. Berkut had insisted there was nothing to worry about, that with his horse riding abilities he’d be able to outwit whatever storm was brewing, and Rinea agreed to carry through with the trip, ever enamored by Berkut’s bravado. For the first half of the trip, a few hours, they were on good pace. In the latter half, however, the storm caught up with them faster than expected— and all it took was a clap of thunder and rainfall to make them realize they needed to hurry it up.

With Rinea hoisting their things off the carriage floor to ensure they don’t get wet (Berkut had decided to take the carriage with the half open retractable roof, which was probably his stupidest move besides deciding to ride out in the face of impending bad weather), and Berkut getting absolutely soaked while steering his trusted horse the best he could, it is very clear the trip meant to relax the both of them is off to a bad start.

“Lord Berkut, if you don’t slow down, the wheels may come loose,” Rinea teases over the sound of the wheels turning in the dirt road beneath them, which is quickly turning into mud. “Let’s be careful.”

“Don’t even joke like that, my love,” Berkut exhales. While Berkut is frustrated beyond belief, Rinea hasn’t even seemed remotely bothered, only raising her voice to comment on the weather or mention he should be careful. That happens to be the difference in their characters— while Berkut needs things to go right for himself or he’ll feel irked, Rinea simply accepts that things can go wrong and moves on. So while Berkut is kicking himself in the leg for undoubtedly ruining Rinea’s dress with the rainfall he said he would avoid, Rinea is busy looking at the woodland around them, watching the sky and seeing the lightning flash.

“We’ll have to turn in somewhere along the way, rather than the destination I had in mind to begin with,” Berkut explains to Rinea. The rainfall isn’t hard enough that it makes it hard to hear each other, but the carriage and clopping of his steed are, so he makes sure his voice is loud when he speaks. The way his hair is sticking to his face makes seeing the road hard— he wipes at his eyes and shakes his hand out at an angle that ensures he won’t accidentally get the moisture on Rinea, as if she isn’t wet already. “Is that alright with you, Rinea?”

“Of course,” she responds. “It wouldn’t be safe to travel like this, anyways. It’s getting dark.”

And it is, dark enough that it makes Berkut grip the reins harder. Sure, they had a lantern to light to see in the dark on their journey— every carriage did— but the matter of lighting it now, when Berkut knows very well the pack of matches in his pocket are soaked now, is impossible. It’s best to just find somewhere to spend the night and continue their trip in the morning.

There happens to be a small village nearby, Berkut knows, and he’s brought enough emergency money to afford  _ buying  _ a small village, if needed, so he knows lodging is easily obtainable. He just has to get there in… perhaps it’s 10, 15 minutes away?

Just as he’s calculating how long it may take for them to get there, a flash goes off, and the following thunderclap is so loud it actually elicits a reaction from Rinea— “Ah!”

“Are you alright?” Berkut turns his head back briefly to ask, something he knows he shouldn’t do much if he wants to make sure they don’t crash into a tree or ride off a cliff any time soon, but he can’t help himself. If Rinea is scared, he wants to reassure her.

Rinea is sitting in the half of the carriage that isn’t covered, sacrificing her own comfort for the sake of ensuring their belongings don’t get ruined, but despite the storm, she still looks gorgeous. Her blue hair is soaked, her dress the same, yet she doesn’t even seem the least bit bothered. She seems so comfortable in this environment it’s as though she was born in it, like a water faerie. Yet another testament to her unparalleled beauty.

She twirls her finger around to tell Berkut wordlessly to keep his eyes on the road, which he does. “I’m fine, milord. That was just very loud!” She laughs. “I wonder how close that was?”

“Rinea, I don’t mind if our things are damaged. I would prefer you sit in the back of the carriage,” Berkut says. He passes a directional sign he knows will lead him to the village, and pulls the reins to go there. 

“Oh, but I’m already wet. There really is no point, dear,” she rebukes him, something she’s gotten more daring with the longer they’re together. Not that Berkut minds that one bit— it charms him, even, to be the one to help bring Rinea out of her shell.

Berkut ignores the thunder overhead and continues. “You’ll catch cold. I couldn’t possibly live with myself if you fell ill because of me.”

“I have a strong constitution. The last time I was sick, I must have been a child.”

“I wonder why that is.”

“I keep myself active with dancing, and I spend a frequent amount of time outside. So really, I… am…”

Rinea pauses.

Then,

“ _ ACHOO! _ ”

The rain around them is getting harder. And the air is certainly getting colder. Berkut picks up the pace like a man out of time. “Oh, if you get a cold on what was supposed to be our vacation, I’ll truly hate myself.”

Rinea giggles at that, but doesn’t say anything in response other than a sniffle. 

It takes a couple more minutes for them to arrive at the village, and when they do, Berkut makes a beeline for their inn— which is more just an over glorified house, and that disgusts Berkut, but he needs to get Rinea inside  _ now.  _ Their entrance causes quite a stir amongst the village people who happen to be out under tarps in front of their homes, especially so when Berkut stops their carriage right in front of the inn, bangs on the door, and hands the innkeep who answers a fistful of gold and says, “This should cover one night, yes?”

Of course, it does, and the innkeep hands him the keys to whatever room inscribed on the keyring— Berkut doesn’t care to check now. Under his breath, he thanks the woman, then rushes back up to their carriage to offer Rinea a lift down.

“I can get out by myself, lord Berkut,” she insists brazenly, but still keeps the name formalities. Nevertheless, she does accept Berkut’s hand and steps out of the carriage, and it’s then that he notices how cold she is. Either her body really  _ is  _ that strong, or she’s just putting on a brave face for him, and the thought of that pains his heart. Other Rigelians would consider such a thing to be standard for a woman to do, but Berkut wants Rinea to be as candid as possible with him. The idea of her suffering in silence makes him feel as though he failed her, and to be completely honest, him executing this trip may as well have done that.

He places the keys in her hands. “You go in first. I’ll grab our things.”

Rinea nods, holds her dress in her hands, and quickly scampers inside, water trailing behind her. Berkut watches her go inside, then properly puts his horse away for the night, unhooking the carriage restraints and leading him to a stable next to the inn, which Berkut assumed was for its guests— if it wasn’t before, it is now. 

By the time Berkut has made it inside (and told what room he’ll be staying in by the innkeep, who also mentions that there will be dinner sent to their room as well), his clothes are so heavy with water he feels like he’s being smothered. 

Once he reaches their room door after ascending a flight of stairs, he knocks, the way they always knock back in the castle to let each other know they’re there— three quick raps, a pause, and then two quicker ones. Thankfully, she hears it, because she calls out, “You can come in!”

Berkut opens the door and finds that the room they’re staying in is nothing particularly special— something the size of his washroom, covered from ceiling to floor in wood, with a vanity and a double bed, big enough to hold the two of them. A small door to the left of the vanity is most likely a closet or washroom, but for now it has Rinea’s soaked (and possibly ruined) dress hanging above its door frame off a shoddy looking hanger. There’s a window above the bed which outlooks the rest of the village, and he can see a small crowd gathering outside despite the weather. No doubt, that would be a pain to deal with later the next morning, and even  _ more  _ later when Rudolph would no doubt catch wind of some ridiculous story about how Berkut and Rinea showed up to a pauper’s inn like two stray dogs. The disgust that comes with thinking such a thing clearly makes his way onto his face. 

Rinea, who’s sitting on their bed in her small clothes and drying her hair with a towel Berkut hasn’t seen before, looks at Berkut standing in the doorway. The sound of the rain pattering outside is broken up by her voice. “You look… uncomfortable,” she says.

“Really? I wonder why,” Berkut snaps back into reality and plays off his insecurities with a joke. He sheds his coat, his boots, his pants, and his shirt, so now he too is only in his small clothes, then makes his way over to Rinea’s dress. The small door does in fact lead to a closet, a small one, which would explain why Rinea chose not to hang her dress in it. Berkut crams his things in it, regardless of if they’ll dry or not by tomorrow morning, and then flops onto the bed by Rinea’s side. They had been together long enough that they weren’t bashful about seeing each other undressed (to what Berkut knew was to the prim and proper people’s dismay, he had seen her in far less plenty of times), and so all Rinea does in response to Berkut joining her is scooch closer to him.

“Wasn’t that something?” Rinea asks. She brings her hand to Berkut’s scalp and begins stroking his hair. Even despite the rain, she still smells wonderful, like hibiscus. Berkut leans into her touch, inhaling deeply. How he wishes the entire world would stop and the two of them could he like this forever. “Now I think I understand some of the hijinks you get on when you’re out in the field.”

A pause. 

“...Did you just boil military conquests down to ‘hijinks’?” Berkut laughs. It wouldn’t be the first time she had had Berkut’s work go completely over her head.

“Maybe...” Rinea mumbles, jerking her hand away from him now that she’s embarrassed. However, she’s much too slow in comparison to Berkut, who grabs her by the wrist and pulls her down so she lays atop him. The towel she’s been using to dry her hair falls haphazardly to the side.

Her face above his, the two stare at each other for a moment. Berkut plants a kiss on her forehead.

Then grimaces. “Oh, Rinea, you’re  _ freezing _ .”

“Well, it was chilly out,” she replies, as if Berkut wasn’t there with her. 

“Let me warm you,” he wraps his arms around her, turning his head in so he can pepper the side of her face with kisses. Her skin is always so soft, and it still is now, but there’s a cold to it that wasn’t usually there. He grabs at the comforter underneath them and pulls, undoing the made bed and wrapping the two of them together— comforter, Rinea, Berkut, comforter, in that order. Berkut had had enough tiring things happen today that he couldn’t care less about being lazy.

“We have dinner coming, milord…” Rinea mumbles, fingers playing with the fabric that covers them, as her hands don’t know where to go but there. Even though Berkut loves it when Rinea moves without needing his guidance, she’s never bold enough to do such a thing, at least, for now (hopefully, that would break with the more time they spent together, even though this was already months into their relationship). Even when they’re together like this, she does her best to keep herself in check, while Berkut is practically drooling over her.

Berkut takes a hand and puts it on the small of her back, continuing to keep her close while the other hand rubs at one of her shoulders at a sore spot he knows she has without her even bringing it up. He had always been good at that, reading Rinea. “Dinner will probably take another 30 minutes or so,” he tells her, teasingly, slowly moving his hand lower, and eyeing her reactions. He stops himself and moves his hand back up upon seeing how Rinea’s eyes are furrowed in indecisiveness— if there was one thing he knew, it was to never push a lady too far for physical matters, even one as easily persuaded as Rinea.

“...After, maybe,” she says, voice quiet. “But not before.”

Berkut nods, then kisses her once more, this time on her lips. “I’ll wait, then.”

Rinea shuts her eyes. “...We’re both clammy and cold, we feel like two wet fish pressed together like this.” 

“Even more reason to just lay under the comforter for a while.”

“You’re so silly. We should just put on our night clothes…”

There’s a pause.

Berkut suddenly sits up, Rinea in his lap. 

“Oh, gods, I completely forgot we packed those, I was so caught up in the mood. What are we doing?”

And then Rinea laughs, a rare open mouthed laugh, one where she doesn’t cover her mouth like she’s been taught to do all of her life, and Berkut thinks that even despite where they were now, their vacation trip was worth all the mishaps just to see her laugh like that.

  
  



End file.
